“I might move (Mark) Teahen up in A.J.’s spot and move A.J. down,” he said. “If I do that, I don’t want those guys to feel I don’t have confidence in them. But when the manager changes the lineups and moves people, that’s for a reason. I have a couple days to think about it.”

… Konerko has been a bargain at $12 million a year, and the White Sox should offer him another two years guaranteed at that price with a third year that can vest depending on his performance in 2012. He’s a cornerstone piece of what has been a good team and you don’t want to make a change there before you have to. … He’s hitting .290 with a majors-leading eight homers and 14 RBIs in 18 games. His game-winner off Brandon League in the eighth inning on Sunday finished a sweep over a Seattle team that only the truly nostalgic could love. Don’t play with fire. Get him signed before he moves into the market.

George Romero may have never considered the possibility of smiling zombies. The walking undead Andruw Jones is infectious with smiling, and he’s spreading the condition all around the Southside of Chicago. He’s burying the rough seasons spent with the Dodgers and Rangers and crunching into opposing pitchers to the tune of a .295/.415/.750 line, or a .499 wOBA. …

One of the problems has been Peavy’s inability to miss bats. FanGraphs has batters whiffing at Peavy’s pitches 10% to 12% of the time throughout his career. His swinging strike rate this season is a disconcerting 6.4%. Why is that important? Because swinging strikes correlate extremely well with strikeouts. Which makes sense on a basic level — i.e. the better the stuff, the more swings and misses, and the higher likelihood of at-bats ending in strikeouts. Despite a static velocity reading on his fastball and a presumably healthy elbow, Peavy’s results — in a small sample of four starts, anyway — suggest his stuff has been subpar and extremely hittable. …